9 March 2013

Jenna Clarke can go to hell

| johnboy
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The BBC has seen fit to join in the Canberra bashing for our city’s birthday.

But if you needed any further proof of the dead tree daily’s miserable failure to serve this city I’d recommend this key to the soap dodger’s reporting:

“My friend put it well – Canberra is like going to grandma’s house,” says Jenna Clarke, life and entertainment editor of the Canberra Times. “Other Australian cities are doing brash, creative things but here everything is wrapped in plastic. It doesn’t mean it’s bad. Canberra is just very mature and knows what it’s doing.”

Actually Jenna there’s a lot of brash and creative things happening here. Your knowledge of them is a judgment I leave to the reader.

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crackerpants said :

There was this in the Weekend Australian Magazine – the only mention of Canberra’s centenary is where it’s dismissed as “a nonsense, a contrivance”.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/heart-of-the-nation-mount-taylor-2606/story-e6frg8h6-1226593171250

It’s great that they got an Aboriginal elder to give his 2 cents on Canberra, though I’m not sure exactly what makes his opinion so special. Do you reckon the Australian would let me have a paragraph or two to talk about how contrived and nonsensical the stories of the dreamtime are and how I think cities like Sydney are overpopulated by heinously big-headed douchebags?

Deref said :

Who TF is Jenna Clarke?

And who cares? I love the place – I couldn’t give a flying f*** what other people think of it.

JessP said :

+300,000

Canberra is HOME to me and mine right now and we love it. Who cares what the others think?

Well you two obviously care how much others think, otherwise you wouldn’t have bothered posting!

🙂

As I said; Canberra is a nice, safe, small, rural, quiet, unassuming, and if anything rather dull, place to live

I’ve just come home from the History on The Big Screen showing at the Old Parliament Rose Gardens, and had some thoughts to share as a result.

Canberra is a planned city. Without its existence, either Melbourne or Sydney would be even more crowded and the like than they are now, and Goulburn or Queanbeyan would be slightly larger than what they are now, in order to take up some of the “regional capital” duties. But the fact that the place is just 100 years old means that it’s not going to have the architecture and history of other cities. That’s just a fact no amount of wishing otherwise will remove. The fact we live in an age terrified of its own shadow certainly doesn’t help either.

Having said that, though, part of the charm of tonight’s event was that it was a very Canberran night; low-key,laid-back, and somewhat corny. It didn’t try to be the latest and greatest, and nor should it have done.

And so it is for Canberra itself. There is no point in playing bigger cities at their own game. Our city is built upon ideas, and to me this is far more powerful. Some of the best footage I saw tonight came out of those types of ideas – there were shots of protests about various topics, especially the Aboriginal tent embassy, and then there was footage of both the 1997 hospital demolition and the 2003 bushfires. These last two held the crowd in silent respect…

It occurred to me that our modern world is full of the media and cultural equivalents of neon lights; if you want attention, you have to be brasher and shinier than the next thing, until (inevitably) you burn out and get replaced.

And some cities I know of in Japan work like that; Osaka and Tokyo are where the young people want to be, where the “action” is. That’s not a bad thing, but nor does it mean that they are all the world is about. Kyoto and Nara (our sister city), on the other hand, play to their strengths. They are both ancient capitals, with history by the bucket, and both are fairly calm places (comparatively, at least) who are proud of what they are, and what they offer the world. They are appreciated by people who can appreciate the power of ideas, and of abstract concepts. Rather than being neon lights, they are soft, subtle, elegant pastels that blend in harmony with the natural world and the changing of the seasons….

Given Canberra’s love of nature, flowers and trees generally, why does our city not trade upon this side to its nature? We are the place to slow down; to not be so stressed out; where the focus is upon quality, not quantity. We produce some wonderful food, win, and beer (yes, I enjoyed yesterday’s festival too).

My point? I do not want Canberra frozen in aspic, we should move with the times and not be a retirement village. So I support higher density, and moves to make Civic and the town centres more vibrant. I think we should have more stuff for our young people, too.

But let’s keep the idea that we are Australia’s “city of dreams; that here,more than anywhere else in the country, we are not bound by history – and that the city is what we collectively wish to make it.

If outsiders don’t get that, that’s fine, be polite to them; they don’t have the honour and privilege to live here.

SomethingSomethingRubenstein10:37 pm 10 Mar 13

Wow, why did Andrew Ure stick around so long if the place was so bad? As Oscar Wilde might have said – to waste one year of one’s life is unfortunate, but to waste six seems like carelessness.
Life’s what you make of it – wherever you live!

I think it’s quite amusing that the two cities Aussies love bagging out the most – Canberra and Adelaide- are the two that were rated as the most liveable by their inhabitants.

Roundhead89 said :

Interestingly The Oz’s tabloid cousin the Tele did a far better article on the centenary yesterday.

The irony is that the DT’s managing editor said that he hated Canberra and thought it a waste of space (well, in the past he said it.)

Jenna Clarke’s resume and CV say it all really. An egotistic extrovert with no insight and no talent.
If you don’t like this city, stuff off back to Perth.

Deref said :

Who TF is Jenna Clarke?

And who cares? I love the place – I couldn’t give a flying f*** what other people think of it.

+300,000

Canberra is HOME to me and mine right now and we love it. Who cares what the others think?

Who TF is Jenna Clarke?

And who cares? I love the place – I couldn’t give a flying f*** what other people think of it.

screaming banshee4:04 pm 10 Mar 13

rosscoact said :

Meh, I could give a damn, I live in Gungahlin, the most beautiful part of Canberra which somehow gets bagged by knuckleheads who wouldn’t have a clue.

What should I care if a few knuckleheads who wouldn’t have a clue want to bah Canberra as a whole?

Anybody who bags where someone lives is insecure about their own lives to the extent that they need to denigrate others just to feel adequate about themselves.

And on behalf of the rest of canberra I thank all gungahlinites for making housing more affordable in the older suburbs.

For people whose idea of a full life is daily drinks on a deck overlooking a harbour, and eating out at a top restaurant four or five nights a week, and season tickets to what Sydney has on offer in arts & culture, why sure. I don’t know how, when and where a tiny privileged elite clinging to the sandstone cliffs got to be put forward as representative of all of Sydney, but it’s just a nonsense. Canberra has very democratic access to the cultural institutions, an amazing academic life on tap, physical beauty, nature and all – and frankly it is about as easy to get to the Sydney Opera House from Canberra as it is from the far western suburbs of Sydney. So all this cr*p knocking Canberra is basically from a bunch of journalists who live in a two-up, two-down in Marrickville and fantasise that they are living the same life as east-eastern suburbs Sydneysiders. Name me any Sydneysiders outside the freebie elite who actually go to Sydney’s cultural institutions more than once every few months. What’s the diff between the life of the average Sydneysider and driving up from Canberra once in a while to check out what’s on offer at the Wharf or whatever?

Someone said something mean about where I live. Waaaaaah!

Who really cares?

When people talk about a city having ‘soul’ i believe what they’re referring to is essentially only possible by having a high concentration of people living in preferably affluent areas such as New York,London,Hong Kong,Tokyo etc.Obviously Canberra is nothing like those cities given its small population living largely in a giant suburbia although in recent times that has changed somewhat due to a greater focus on high density housing which has made the place more vibrant.

Sure it isn’t as exciting as Sydney or Melbourne but who wants to crawl along in traffic,pay exorbitant prices for parking and breathe the crap air? Certainly not me!

JC said :

Hey JB before basing the article did you actually read it, or did you just read the headline? From what I read in it there wasn’t much bashing on behalf of the BBC, instead I read an article that presented the views of others (including the Canberra Times entertainment editor), but the general jist of the article was ABOUT how others bash Canberra, without the actual article bashing Canberra. Considering Canberra bashing is a national sport I don’t see an issue with the article the way the BBC presented it. Unless of course you support censorship where no touchy subject should be discussed.

PS as for Andrew Ure comment, clearly he has never noticed the streams of traffic leaving Sydney every Friday and returning Sunday evening.

I don’t actually think Jenna Clarke did much wrong either…a few selected quotes that don’t explain the context or the total of what she was asked? They surely didn’t ring her up and ask her to criticise the place, but maybe she was bagged by the BBC also?
As for this Andrew Ure..he just comes across as a dickhead. Comments like that make you realise he’s as shallow as puddle, you just know the type.

Everywhere else I’ve worked has been far bigger than Canberra, with more people, more pubs, bars, fast food, more concerts, more sport….more interesting maybe? Also more rapes, more crime, more shootings, more bad behaviour, more social breakdown, more congested traffic and transport, less organisation….just more difficult and less comfortable to live in. Exciting for a period, but it wears you down mentally.
It seems to me that a lot of people who criticise Canberra for what is is, don’t have much solid experience of living anywhere else….a few months placement in London or poncing round Europe on the train is not the best way to compare it favourably to places like Canberra, just the same as a backpacker extolling Sydney doesn’t know how it would feel if you actually had to live there, pay the going rate to be afford to live there, and then actually get to and from work 5 days a week just the same as you would anywhere else. You soon get bored looking at the harbour bridge when you’re worrying how to pay so much for a rental where you’ve just got a view of buildings and no room to swing a cat. Oh but it’s Sydney? So feckin’ what. Bricks and mortar are the same everywhere…your soul comes from inside you, not a place.

The strength of Canberra is that it IS different and that it’s not Sydney. There are lots of young people who won’t realise that until they get older and have experienced a bit more of the world and it’s hardships elsewhere, then it will finally hit home that not following the “norm” is actually a bit radical.
I’ve got absolutely no doubts that Canberra will become more and more desirable, none at all.

Roundhead89 said :

Pathetic article from the newspaper run out of town by The Canberra Times.

And Riot-ACT!

Even if I had access to free, on-call child-minding, there is more on over the next month or so than I could possibly hope to go to. The You Are Here festival has many events listed that are inventive and questioning, for example.

These are the views of the entertainment editor! It is actually quite funny, in a mordant way.

dpm said :

I see the CT is bagging the BBC article, but fails to mention one of its own staff was involved with the bagging. Odd, really….
Perhaps the CT article should say: “Critics (including own own CT reporters) try to rain on our birthday parade”? 🙂

Whoops, I forgot the link:
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/critics-try-to-rain-on-our-birthday-parade-20130309-2ft9j.html

crackerpants said :

There was this in the Weekend Australian Magazine – the only mention of Canberra’s centenary is where it’s dismissed as “a nonsense, a contrivance”.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/heart-of-the-nation-mount-taylor-2606/story-e6frg8h6-1226593171250

Pathetic article from the newspaper run out of town by The Canberra Times. I saw the headline about Mt Taylor but there was no mention of it at all in the article, not even in the caption of the pic taken on Green Apple. Interestingly The Oz’s tabloid cousin the Tele did a far better article on the centenary yesterday.

I see that as a positive statement and very accurate. Canberra’s attraction, (to me,) is not in its vibrancy, as it is not a vibrant city, it’s in it’s quiet slow pace of life. If you have only lived in Canberra, and not in a real major capital, then you could be seen as bad as some of the “Canberra-Bashers” who knock the place on scant experience. I’ve lived and worked in three capitals, (Cardiff, London, Berlin,) and stayed in many more. As what is normally perceived as the expectations of a “capital city” Canberra does not measure up in any way shape or form. But there again, I could also say, based on firsthand experience, that London, Cardiff, Berlin, (as well as Tokyo, Amsterdam, Paris, Mexico city, Barcelona, Rome, Prague, Marrakesh, Tunis, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Dublin, Dubai, Santiago, and others,) are not great cities to live in, despite being full blown capitals, as they do not meet my requirements for a place to live in. Yet Canberra does, precisely for there reasons others may knock the place.

Let’s face it folks, Canberra is a nice, safe, small, rural, quiet, unassuming, and if anything rather dull, place to live.

Meh, I could give a damn, I live in Gungahlin, the most beautiful part of Canberra which somehow gets bagged by knuckleheads who wouldn’t have a clue.

What should I care if a few knuckleheads who wouldn’t have a clue want to bah Canberra as a whole?

Anybody who bags where someone lives is insecure about their own lives to the extent that they need to denigrate others just to feel adequate about themselves.

I see the CT is bagging the BBC article, but fails to mention one of its own staff was involved with the bagging. Odd, really….
Perhaps the CT article should say: “Critics (including own own CT reporters) try to rain on our birthday parade”? 🙂

Hey JB before basing the article did you actually read it, or did you just read the headline? From what I read in it there wasn’t much bashing on behalf of the BBC, instead I read an article that presented the views of others (including the Canberra Times entertainment editor), but the general jist of the article was ABOUT how others bash Canberra, without the actual article bashing Canberra. Considering Canberra bashing is a national sport I don’t see an issue with the article the way the BBC presented it. Unless of course you support censorship where no touchy subject should be discussed.

PS as for Andrew Ure comment, clearly he has never noticed the streams of traffic leaving Sydney every Friday and returning Sunday evening.

crackerpants8:00 am 10 Mar 13

There was this in the Weekend Australian Magazine – the only mention of Canberra’s centenary is where it’s dismissed as “a nonsense, a contrivance”.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/heart-of-the-nation-mount-taylor-2606/story-e6frg8h6-1226593171250

Rawhide Kid Part3 said :

I don’t think we’ll ever stop the Canberra bashing while we have the likes of Jenna Clarke and ex Canberran Andrew Ure. and others who seem to be disgruntled with their life here. I love Canberra and have done so since 1975 and always will.

The Canberra bashing won’t stop until the Federal politicians go and play somewhere else, and then Canberra will rapidly slide into obscurity.

Growling Ferret7:04 am 10 Mar 13

And good to see the CT referencing the story, without linking it, nor making any comment that Jenna Clarke contributed to it.

Typical cowardly Canberra Times

incredulousandridiculous2:02 am 10 Mar 13

Jenna Clarke is a perfect example of crony, I-was-rejected-by-Cosmo-so-I-write-trashy-newspaper-pieces journalism. Whether or not you agree with the likes of Paul Sheehan, Peter FitzSimons and others, who write about a plethora of topics, at least they write columns that force you to think and examine issues. You may even hate their opinions, but they engage you enough to facilitate critical thinking.

How Jenna Clarke is paid probably $100,000+ to write brain damage-inducing horses*== is beyond me.

Holden Caulfield11:42 pm 09 Mar 13

I spent the night at Enlighten. It was awesome. People everywhere, all of them having a great time. This festival really has very quickly discovered and established a wonderful niche and long may it continue.

I hope the tea and scones at Jenna’s grandma’s were up to scratch.

Rawhide Kid Part3 said :

I don’t think we’ll ever stop the Canberra bashing while we have the likes of Jenna Clarke and ex Canberran Andrew Ure. and others who seem to be disgruntled with their life here. I love Canberra and have done so since 1975 and always will.

Righteous. I’ve been here since 1976 after living in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and various country towns. I love the place and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

The headline for this post says it all. To all the naysayers, a full moon, two fingers and a resounding Fcuk You.

Maybe we should change the name and have Canberra just refer to the parliamentary triangle. The same thing the US did the same with Washington and capitol hill as its new metonym.

Well you couldn’t really get more grandma-ish than Robyn Archer, could you really?

Rawhide Kid Part36:06 pm 09 Mar 13

I don’t think we’ll ever stop the Canberra bashing while we have the likes of Jenna Clarke and ex Canberran Andrew Ure. and others who seem to be disgruntled with their life here. I love Canberra and have done so since 1975 and always will.

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